Now then, as we say around these parts.

I’m very fortunate to have two further weeks on sabbatical before returning to work again. I’m going to use these weeks to undertake quite a bit of volunteering in different areas.

I’ve already completed two stints and have enjoyed them both a lot.

Friday – volunteering with Friends of Ferens Art Gallery
I’ve been a Friend of Ferens Art Gallery for several years. The previous Chair of the friends group was one of the Governors at Hull College and he regularly brought in leaflets for the Friends until you joined. I have a lot to be grateful to this particular chap for; he was the Governor representative on the interview panel when I went for the job at Hull College and he told me afterwards that the slightly sassy way I answered his first question meant I was his pick from the candidates that day (Q: You’ve changed job every 2-3 years for the last 10 years. Why should we employ you? A: I’ve changed job every 2-3 years for the last 10 years and I have a range of experience to bring). He is a really interesting person – a businessman, successful in the timber business for 50 years, passing on a profit-making company to his sons, he also had a significant interest in art, particularly Italian Renaissance art, and his success in business meant he and his wife could often be found in Europe, particularly in their Venice apartment. I greatly enjoyed talking with him and learned a lot from him about how art is possibly more accessible than you think. He has been a wonderful ambassador for the Ferens and local art all of his life.

I was glad to join the Friends scheme and it organises excellent events throughout the year, including a preview session for the annual open art competition.

The Ferens itself has an excellent collection with quite a wide range, from Flemish masters, to French Impressionists, to surrealists, a Vorticist (YES!), local 18th Century maritime art, 14th Century European Church art and modern art. It includes some of my favourite pieces of art and is a lovely gallery to just wander in to; it’s calm and quiet and you’re not pestered or feel like you need to do anything other than pick a piece of art and study it in as much depth as you wish.

One of the more well-known pieces in the collection is the canvas of a boxer, which is the image that The Beautiful South used as the album cover for their record, Quench. When the canvas is on display – and it is really rather large – it’s a super piece.

One of the pieces that originally drew me when I first visited the Ferns, and a piece I always stop by on the way past, is a rather odd-looking self-portrait:

It is Self Portrait as a Tyro by Percy Wyndham Lewis. He is the Vorticist mentioned above; an artist not without controversy, he was a war artist during WWI and helped move forward British art between the two world wars. This portrait, and looking it up afterwards, was one of the ways in which I have become more interested in art over the last 10 years, having grown up not really ‘getting it’ or enjoying it in the way that I do now.

This is a very long way of saying that I am happy to support the Ferens, including through the Friends scheme. There are around 611 Friends on the mailing list and the Friends contribute throughout the year to the life of the gallery – organising events, talks and speakers for the public as well as Friends, sponsoring awards during the annual events and also helping to pay funds towards the restoration or purchase of pieces of art.

The Friends regularly produce a newsletter – 550 copies of which need stuffing in to envelopes, address labels sticking on the front and boxing up for posting. This is what I spent some time doing on Friday, and very much enjoyed it. There were 12 Friends pitching in, and with these numbers, the mailing was completed in 47 minutes, which is a record. It used to be done by 5 Trustees after 2 hour Board meetings – I’m glad for their sakes that they have put it out to the Friends to help out with. It very much reminded me of the summer jobs I used to do between years at Uni – sticking labels on to packets one summer, and another sorting out 2 million additional winter fuel allowance applications when the Government lowered the qualifying age in one year’s budget. Lots of sticking, folding and stuffing with precision.

Today was volunteering 2 – helping out at a local Parkrun. This was my third time volunteering, today as tail walker. I really enjoy and appreciate Parkruns – free 5km runs in local parks all over Britain and increasingly, around the world. They are all run by volunteers and it is good to take a turn once in a while to say thanks for the organised running you get to do.

Here are a couple of shots today’s event, including one from the tail walking point of view at the start:

Tail walking is a fun role and I had a fellow walker with me today; one of the lovely elements of Parkrun is that they are about participation – the walk and the run goes as fast or as slow as you want to or can manage. Today’s talk walking involved walking with one person with a broken toe, who has been ordered off running for a few weeks, and keeping up with a chap whose hip needs rebuilding – however, he was determined to walk around without his stick this week and meant he finished several minutes faster than he was able to last week. It’s grand being able to complete the event with the last finishers and know that everyone’s completed the event safely at a pace that they can manage. 56 minutes from start to finish was today’s time. A lovely bumble around the park and another volunteering stint for me.

Tomorrow’s volunteering – playing with steam trains. Poop poop!